April 30, 2010 | By Paul F. South
NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelley celebrated the school's heritage of providence and prayer in his annual "State of the Seminary" address to the students, faculty and staff.
Ninety-three years after its founding, Kelley said, the seminary remains, "In the grip of God."
In 1917, Southern Baptists decided to create a seminary from scratch in New Orleans, one of the nation's most non-Baptist cities. He called the history of the seminary the story of "the little seminary that could."
Now one of the largest seminaries in the world, NOBTS has weathered epidemics, economic upheaval and epic storms, including the worst natural disaster in American history. Thanks to God's providence the seminary still thrives, training God-called men and women for ministry.
There are five principles at the heart of the seminary's success story, Kelley said.
- The seminary has survived and thrived because, Kelley said, "It was willing to embrace the unconventional - to be willing to see this region that is so utterly un-Baptist as not a threat or a difficulty, but as an opportunity to do something great for the kingdom of God."
The seminary also embraced and applied new technologies on an unprecedented scale to deliver theological education to students both on the main campus and at extension centers throughout the Southeast and even in maximum-security prisons.
"We have learned that if we are going to do the work of the kingdom of God, we can't simply do it in the conventional traditional ways," Kelley said. "Though there's nothing wrong with those ways, they became conventional for a reason - they worked. We must also be committed to pushing the edge of the envelope, to get out of the box, to do those things that are opportunities for something new, rather than what has been done in the past."
- The seminary also places an emphasis on what Kelley called, "the nuts and bolts of practical ministry," as well as the more academic aspects of theological education, including sound biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, theology, church history and polity.
"We have decided at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary that we are going to embrace both those aspects of ministry - what you know and what you are able to do," Kelley said. "We want to embrace the reality of the local church and the necessity of excellent scholarship. What we have discovered is you don't have to sacrifice one to have the other."
Kelley cited the school's commitment to faculty who are not only world-class scholars, but are accomplished servants of the local church.
- The seminary is also committed to extending its reach beyond the traditional campus setting through its network of extension centers and online learning. While education at the main New Orleans campus remains the seminary's "gold standard," Kelley said, the school understands that because of life circumstances, alternatives are needed to deliver quality theological education.
"We believe God can use a trained minister in fabulous and important ways," Kelley said. "The more tools you have in the toolbox, the more likely you are to do something great for the kingdom of God. And we are determined to make those tools available as widely as we can to as many people as we can."
- Throughout its history, hard lessons learned through cataclysmic events - from epidemics, to economic travail to hurricanes - also forged the present-day seminary. The seminary nearly closed its doors in the wake of the Great Depression. Kelley recalled how students and faculty, upon returning from their churches on Sunday nights, would bring donated food to feed the seminary family.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina punched New Orleans and the seminary with unprecedented power, leaving 70 percent of the Crescent City underwater. Kelley recalled the days after the storm.
"Through the years, God has taught this school of providence and prayer to roll with the punches," Kelley said
- A fifth lesson is that despite all that it has accomplished, the seminary's work is never done. "The lesson we had to learn is that sunrises are more important than sunsets. . .New Orleans seminary has always tried to keep its vision on the sunrise, knowing there was always something more to do for the Kingdom of God."
Key decisions have shaped the seminary, Kelley said. First, NOBTS is committed to making excellent theological education as accessible as possible to any God-called man or woman anywhere in the world. In addition, the curriculum addresses the core competencies needed for successful real-world ministry.
During Kelley's presidency, class schedules have become more flexible. Classes now meet every day - some once a week, others twice a week. There are also night and weekend classes, and concentrated workshops.
Bucking a trend in higher education that has seen a move toward adjunct faculty, NOBTS has built a residential faculty. The New Orleans campus is at the heart of the entire seminary does, but there are faculty who are involved in day-to-day ministry who still serve in teaching roles at NOBTS.
The seminary has also made a commitment to continuing scholarship for the faculty, as well as a commitment to centers and forums for scholarship, including the Haggard Center for New Testament Textual Studies, as well as the Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum, in which leading scholars from around the globe -both evangelical and atheist -- debate key issues of faith.
Other initiatives like the Youth Ministry Institute and the Church Leadership Certificate provide focused training, not only to seminary students, but also to laypeople.
These dreams that became reality are at the heart of the seminary's identity, Kelley said.
"This is who we are: We are a group who is facing the sunrise, who is embracing the unconventional, who is determined to do everything we can to make theological education accessible and who are determined to do it together for the glory of God," Kelley said.
So, where is NOBTS today?
Enrollment continues to grow, Kelley said. That increase has brought challenges, especially in Katrina's wake. The seminary lost 92 apartments. Efforts are underway to replace that lost campus housing. However, by year's end, the seminary expects to have 3,600 students.
Turning to economics, in what Kelley called a "miracle of God," the seminary's endowment appears to have weathered the recession. While other institutions have lost as much as 30 percent of their endowments, it appears that barring any strange events, the NOBTS endowment will emerge intact. More money for scholarships is expected in the 2010-11 academic year. The seminary has received a gift of $800,000 for music scholarships, the most in school history. The seminary has also received $2 million for an endowed chair in evangelism and church health. Another gift will allow the seminary to endow a chair in pastoral leadership.
"God has really done a miracle in protecting the investments that people have made in the school of providence and prayer," Kelley said.
Sixteen new two-bedroom apartments will be ready by early June. Additional units are expected to be completed by the fall. Kelley asked his audience to pray for more apartments.
Kelley left his audience with a main thought, buttressed by images of today's blossoming NOBTS campus, and the waterlogged post-Katrina campus of nearly five years ago.
"There was a day when if you had told me what we were going to look like today, I would have had a hard time believing you. God had to convince me," Kelley said. But the journey from there to here is a reflection, not of my leadership as president, not of the people who give money and the people who work here. It's a reflection of how strong God's grip is on His people and His purposes."
"And the same God who did that journey, that's the same God who has that same grip on you, and on your life," Kelley added. "That's where we are now - in the grip of God."
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